How to delete all contacts from iPhone at once

S

simranali

New Member
Oct 14, 2007
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0
If you are using iTunes for windows and have synced your contacts with Windows address books and your contact list is now filles with all of your contacts email addresses, here is a quick way to delete your address book at once.

create 2 empty text files on your desktop and rename them to

AddressBookImages.sqlitedb

and

AddressBook.sqlitedb

copy/overwrite these empty files into " /var/root/Library/AddressBook" folder, using "Ibrickr"

this will empty your contacts list, since all contacts are stored in those two files.
* This wont take effect until you restart your iPhone

Cheers!
 
T

todesto

New Member
Bronze
Sep 30, 2007
59
0
0
simranali said:
If you are using iTunes for windows and have synced your contacts with Windows address books and your contact list is now filles with all of your contacts email addresses, here is a quick way to delete your address book at once.

create 2 empty text files on your desktop and rename them to

AddressBookImages.sqlitedb

and

AddressBook.sqlitedb

copy/overwrite these empty files into " /var/root/Library/AddressBook" folder, using "Ibrickr"

this will empty your contacts list, since all contacts are stored in those two files.
* This wont take effect until you restart your iPhone

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I just create the back up by exporting contact info in outlook, then erase all the contact in outlook then sync to erase the contact info in the phone.....
I guess this is another way.....:)
 
P

pthawley

New Member
Oct 3, 2008
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0
Fast and Easier, especially for non-hijacked phones

An easier way for non-hijacked phones is to go to the Info tab in iTunes. Change the "Sync Contacts with" option to something else that has no contacts in it. I orginally had sync'd to MS Outlook. I choose Windows Address book. I also hit the "Reset Sync History" button in the Devices tab of iTunes Preferences (Edit menu) but I am not sure if that is needed.

I sync'd once ... and that copied all my iPhone contacts into the empty Windows Address book. Then I deleted all the contacts in the Windows Address book and resync's .... Voila! No contracts in the iPhone!

:) Peter
 
R

robe070

New Member
Aug 25, 2009
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0
If you are using Funambol to sync with SyncML server, it has an option in Cleanup to delete all Contacts.
 
J

jibtrim

New Member
Feb 13, 2010
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0
Will any of these adversely effect my mobile me settings? I have duplicates of each and every contact and calendar entry now and would like to nuke the Outlook contacts only. I have unchecked the "Sync with Outlook" box thingy. However, when I did it said it will effect thre mobile me settings.
 
C

ciderman

New Member
Mar 1, 2010
1
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0
the simplest method i found was to do the following...

1) Sign up for a free Yahoo mail account - something like youriPhone123@yahoo.co.uk
2) connect iPhone to iTunes and select the 'info' tab
3) under 'contacts' set it to sync with yahoo addressbook (which will be empty) enter your yahoo name and password when prompted, then click sync.
4) iTunes will then copy all your phones current contacts into the new yahoo mail address book
5) log in to the yahoo mail account and you will see all your phones contacts - tick the box and 'delete all'
6) follow steps 2+3 again by connecting and sync'ing within iTunes, only this time it will delete all your contacts in order to reflect what has been done in yahoo mail.

you can then proceed to import a fresh contact list from another scource such as Windows Addressbook or SIM card.

would really be much better if iPhone or iTunes had a simple 'delete all' button, even if it was a pin-locked option like many other handsets.. but hey the above works so no biggie...
 
B

Bizsmom

New Member
Apr 5, 2010
1
0
0
Deleting/replacing contacts

Thanks! The tip on transferring contacts to yahoo contacts list then deleting worked like a charm! Cleaned up all the duplicate/incomplete entries in outlook...re-synched and voila! My contacts are now nice and tidy! Thanks again for the tip!:)
 
T

tonynguyen10

New Member
May 19, 2010
9
0
1
pthawley said:
An easier way for non-hijacked phones is to go to the Info tab in iTunes. Change the "Sync Contacts with" option to something else that has no contacts in it. I orginally had sync'd to MS Outlook. I choose Windows Address book. I also hit the "Reset Sync History" button in the Devices tab of iTunes Preferences (Edit menu) but I am not sure if that is needed.

I sync'd once ... and that copied all my iPhone contacts into the empty Windows Address book. Then I deleted all the contacts in the Windows Address book and resync's .... Voila! No contracts in the iPhone!

:) Peter
Click to expand...
this worked like a charm - thanks!
 
I

ipwperia

New Member
Jun 29, 2010
8
0
0
pthawley said:
An easier way for non-hijacked phones is to go to the Info tab in iTunes. Change the "Sync Contacts with" option to something else that has no contacts in it. I orginally had sync'd to MS Outlook. I choose Windows Address book. I also hit the "Reset Sync History" button in the Devices tab of iTunes Preferences (Edit menu) but I am not sure if that is needed.

I sync'd once ... and that copied all my iPhone contacts into the empty Windows Address book. Then I deleted all the contacts in the Windows Address book and resync's .... Voila! No contracts in the iPhone!

:) Peter
Click to expand...
Not work for me for the first time, ( human error I think, haha ) but the second try, it works. Thanks Pal ! :)
 
R

Ronon

New Member
Jul 21, 2010
1
1
0
Biloxi
How to DELETE all of your iPhone contacts or restore to new iPhone

its super easy free and you can do it on your iPhone no iTunes, pc or mac needed just one simple app and its free

iDrive lite is the app i use it as a backup for my mobile me and iPhone contacts just in case well i recently upgraded to the iPhone 4 synced my phone set up mobile me and then i noticed i had double of everyone in my address book i have a previous backup on idrive lite so all i did was

run the app
register (with a new account they haven't implemented login with another account yet)
press back up ( takes a few seconds )
clean slate restore ( allow app to retrieve contacts once it says restore and the progress bar has visably moved hit the home button exiting the app )
now if you go to contacts there all deleted if you use mobile me or sync with windows mail or yahoo then you know how to restore i simply restored my contacts from another idrive lite account

simple process until Apple adds delete all contacts to the reset menu :sneaky:
 
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Maketso

Maketso

Member
Silver
Jul 17, 2010
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ciderman said:
5) log in to the yahoo mail account and you will see all your phones contacts - tick the box and 'delete all'
6) follow steps 2+3 again by connecting and sync'ing within iTunes, only this time it will delete all your contacts in order to reflect what has been done in yahoo mail.

.

...
Click to expand...
I am trying to learn how syncing actually works because I know many, myself included, have had unexpected results.

For the steps above, I wonder what the difference is between syncing with the originally blank yahoo address book?
 
K

KenW

New Member
May 22, 2011
1
0
1
If you are using the latest version of iTunes, go the INFO and unclick the Sync Contacts button. It will ask you if you want to "unsync" (delete) all contacts synced with your application(s). (If you sync with more than one app, you can just uncheck that app instead of unsyncing all of them and you get the same question, but just for that app). Select YES, and it will delete all of the contacts for the selected (or all) apps. Then just resync once you have your contacts file cleaned up
 
D

devemake

New Member
May 26, 2011
1
0
1
They will be deleted from your iPhone if you go to iTunes and uncheck syncing contacts. They resync your phone and the contacts will be gone from the phone.
 
Dreaminghawk

Dreaminghawk

New Member
Jun 5, 2011
1
0
1
Ham Lake, Minnesota
Even easier ... Using iMac, Outlook 2011 and iPhone.,

  1. Turn off all the sync in both Outlook and iTunes
  2. Cleanup all your contacts in Outlook
  3. Export them using .olm to save the exported file
  4. Delete all your contact in both Outlook and [Apple] Address Book (select all and hit your delete button)
  5. Go to your iPhone and sync in iTunes (all contacts will be removed from iPhone)
  6. Import the Outlook file you exported [in Outlook]
  7. Outlook will add another folder called Address Book... (or whatever you named the exported file)
  8. Quickly select all the Outlook Contacts and move them to "Address Book"
  9. Sync Outlook and Apple Address Book
  10. Open iTunes and sync only your Contacts.
Sounds like a lot of steps but was amazingly easy. Do it once and you'll find it easy and fast.

Unfortunately I spent 1.99 on ContactDel before I figured this out.

Peace,
Dreaminghawk
 
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